The "why didn't it come with this?" Fabia project

[Athrx]

I'll be making this thread to keep track of what has been done, offer some part numbers wherever possible and ideally guide whoever else decides to go through with some retrofits on their own car. Photos will follow, although i seem to be limited to 114kb of media right now

[Athrx]

Upgrade number one:

Led headlights. Philips ultinon 9000 pro and some bent brackets and they're in! 

 

Pros:

no resistor needed

Night and day difference to the light output

No more burnt bulbs. Saved roughly 4 sets in a year now

 

Cons: 

Need to find a friendly mot tester or buy new brackets to fit normal bulbs.

In winter when the roads get salted glare becomes a bit much. Ideally there will be a window cleaner spray and a rubber wiper in the boot to use daily.

Reaching for the little switch inside the lens to turn them for europe driving is nearly impossible with them on, and removing/refitting them is a 30 minute job easily..

 

Upgrade number 2:

Led number plate lights, led front position lights, led interior, glove box, boot lights.

 

This one is more a trip to the Halfords car park than anything really. You'll need the halfords advanced led stuff as the normal ones are completely rubbish. 4x w5w bulbs, 2 for side lights, 1 for glove box, 1 for boot light. They will NOT fit in the ceiling lens unfortunately, for those you need to find some philips ones with a diffuser on amazon.

Lastly, 4x 239 c5w halfords advanced bulbs. They don't really have any other size so contacts will need to be bent around a bit. Number plate lights can be pried open from the left side with a screwdriver and something to protect the paint, then with lots of swearing, the bulbs eventually fit right in and it will all be worth it

[Athrx]

Upgrade number 3: 

Cruise control and maxidot instrument cluster!

this one was a trip to Eddie-NL with the right parts and asking lots of annoying questions while he worked on my car. It is worth the trip to his place, trust me.

 

For the cruise control, i had to find the stalks that had the cruise buttons on the left side (lots of basic ones, a bit hard to find). About £40 off ebay. With that, there's some wires to pull to the bcm, then 1 wire to pull through to the engine bay and into the ecu. This requires cutting a slot into the anti tampering bolds that hold the ecu in place.

 

for the maxidot, ideally there should be found a similar year donor car. I found a much newer one (very late 2014, one of the last ones) and unfortunately the mileage forever flashes on the screen. I then found a 2011 cluster and it would only take 32 bit immobiliser keys, instead of the 64 ones i have. So, find the exact year if possible

[Athrx]

Upgrade 4: replace all rubber suspension parts, upgrade top mounts to polyurethane. Feels like a new car and all clunks are gone

 

Upgrade 4.1: columbus radio, bluetooth, rear parking sensors.

For the radio there's not much to it, just find one with led screen if possible. It will still feel outdated and have nothing near android auto, but compared to the swing unit, it will recognise the phone and media it is playing.

Bluetooth, the unit itself is 7P6035730E . The mounting holes can be snapped off and it will just about fit under the radio. Wiring was done by @Eddie-NLonce again.

Rear parking sensors.. all the part numbers are in the diagram here: https://www.lllparts.co.uk/product/5J6919486CGRU/skoda-primed-5j6919486cgru

The control module, sensors and buzzer will be a lot cheaper from ebay, the rest are cheapest from that site

 

Upgrade 4.2: 

Sunglass holder near the ceiling light. I don't wear any sunglasses but it was £20 from skodaparts so couldn't pass up. Part no: 1Z0 868 565 F Y20

 

[Athrx]

Upgrade 5:

Bonnet gas struts

£50 from dark ice designs on ebay, 15 minutes and a set of torx bits and it's done

Edited 26 July, 2023 by Athrx
Polishing up

[Athrx]

Now the heavy lifters. I found a scrap fabia vrs for parts, from which i salvaged the vrs seats with seat heaters, the buttons for them, the drl light switch and the 17" rims

 

Upgrade 6:

17" alloys and michelin ps5's. Went from handling like a boat through corners to somewhat normal. It left my soul behind on some motorway potholes already but still worth it

 

Upgrade 7: 

Vrs seats. Why are these not standard? Bonus, both come with under seat storage.

Seat heaters were sorted by Eddie once again

 

Upgrade 8: monte carlo black fog lights with daytime running lights. Wiring done as always by Eddie. Drl's can be switched off from near the fuse box. Fog lights were programmed to act as cornering lights, and they raise the same question: why didn't it come with these??

Anyway, it's just about the biggest facelift the front can get with these installed, makes the car look wider and a bit less like a furby doll.

 

Upgrade 8.1: 

Auto lights. £40 off ebay, replacing the switch and hiding the light sensor somewhere facing the windshield.. 10 minute job.

[Athrx]

Upgrade 9:

Rear electric windows

This one turned out to be the biggest pain in the backside to source all the parts for.

 

Rough part no. List as follows

X1 Drivers door trim 5J0867171 47H

X1 Drivers door buttons 1Z0959858B 3X1

X2 Rear doors trim 5J0867435 47H

X2 Rear doors button 5J0959855 REH

X2 Connector rear buttons 1K0972704 C

X2 Window motor connectors 1K0972961

X1Drivers door buttons connector 1K0972776

X1 Rear right motor 6R0959812

X1 Rear left motor 6R0959811

^ both of these can be from skoda roomster without any issues. 

Now, for the windows mechanisms there are plenty of options available, they can be sourced as a pair for £35-ish. Skoda roomster lifters DO NOT fit. If you end up with a skoda roomster lifter, you need to salvage the long bar with the rollers from the old manual lifter and cut the metal sleeve from the wire another 1-1.5cm. reuse any old bolt you can.

X6 window motor screws 1J0959821

These are infuriatingly rare to find. 

 

With all of these parts, I once again went to @Eddie-NL, he did his magic and now i have 4 electric windows. I wish i could explain exactly what wire goes where, but he's the man for the job here!

[Athrx]

Upgrade 9.1:

Leather steering wheel with buttons! Life changer and uplifts the whole dashboard look.

I am now in search of a steering wheel from a facelift fabia vrs with the paddle shifters. I'm not even sure they exist in the uk

 

Upgrade 9.2:

full size spare wheel. Of course it was not included as standard..

[Cropzy]

Excellent thread so far! Really thinking about doing some of these easy stuff to mine.

[Athrx]

Upgrade 10! 

Jbl passhub pro spare wheel subwoofer and of course windshield cracked, which means it's working well.

£275 for the sub, £25 wiring kit from halfords and 3 hours pulling trims around the car and it's done.

I really need to put some pictures.. damn upload limit

[Breezy_Pete]

2 minutes ago, Athrx said:

damn upload limit

Become a freedom member to fix this: Membership Options (Freedom) - BRISKODA

[Athrx]

Upgrade 10.999? 

This beauty, with dsg paddles. Unfortunately i seem to require a different set of buttons to make everything work, so not quite done yet.

 

If anyone has a set of 5E0919719G buttons, i'll be interested in buying them asap